My Nain would sit in her chair on a Sunday and wait… She’d read the paper, watch a bit of telly, do a few chores around her ‘Sheltered Home’. Sunday to someone who had been retired for nearly 30 years is just like any other day really, only it was a day that I would visit her. There was nothing regular, nothing set in stone, just that I’d visit her ‘most Sundays.’
Taid had died in 1993, she nursed him for over a decade after he survived lung cancer. A stroke got him eventually, ending a ten years of being in pain, but he, like my Nain lived for those he loved.
On the Sundays I didn’t visit, Nain would heave herself up out of her chair and peer out of the window every time she heard a car pull up. I know this because every time I drove up I’d see her head pop in the window and she’d give a wave. I could’ve phoned to say I wasn’t coming, but nothing was set in stone… Only now seven years on (or is it six…?), I still feel so guilty for not letting her know when I wasn’t going to visit. I was more afraid of disappointing her on the spot than I was of leaving her in hope…

Viv Albertine is not one to mince her words, and when Efa pounced on stage after the opening song to whisper in Viv’s ear, that was the slam down Efa received. It transpires that Viv was asked if she was going through a mid-life crisis after singing Never Come.